27515: (news) Chamberlain: Haiti-Elections (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Greg Chamberlain <GregChamberlain@compuserve.com>

   By MICHAEL NORTON

   PORT-AU-PRINCE, Feb 7 (AP) -- Haitians formed long lines outside polling
stations Tuesday amid heavy security to vote in Haiti's first presidential
election in nearly six years, a vote authorities called a key step toward
steering this bloodied, impoverished nation away from total collapse.
   Clutching newly minted voter ID cards, about 1,000 people lined up
before dawn at a polling station in the Port-au-Prince area of Delmas,
waiting for electoral officials to open the doors. Hundreds of people
waited along rutted, trash-strewn streets in the downtown slum of Bel-Air,
some pushing and shoving to keep their place in line.
   Polls were scheduled to open at 6 a.m. EST, but several voting stations
in the capital had yet to open by then.
   "Haitians are mobilized for change, that's why there's so many people in
the street this morning," said Jean Joseph, 44, on his way to vote.
   Helicopters, trucks and even mules ferried election supplies into remote
corners of the Caribbean nation on Monday. U.N. officials said that 92
percent of the 3.5 million people who registered to vote had collected
their identity cards, a sign that turnout could be high.
   "Haiti's future depends on this vote," said Jacques Bernard, director
general of the electoral council. "Good elections are the only solution to
saving our nation."
   Jose Miguel Insulza, secretary-general of the Organization of American
States, told The Associated Press late Monday he expected a strong
participation.
   "We have seen ... a lot of enthusiasm to vote," he said in
Port-au-Prince, the capital of this nation of 8 million people.
   The front-runner is former president Rene Preval, a 63-year-old
agronomist who led the country from 1996-2001. Other top contenders among
the 33 candidates are businessman Charles Henry Baker and Leslie Manigat,
who was president for five months in 1988 until a coup ousted him.
   If no candidate wins a majority, a March 19 runoff would be held between
the top two candidates. Hundreds of candidates are also running for 129
parliamentary seats.
   In the downtown slum of Bel-Air, walls and shops once adorn with images
of Aristide are now plastered in a sea of yellow posters bearing Preval's
face.
   Aristide, once backed by the United States and seen as a beacon of hope
in this desperate country, was driven from power after being accused of
corruption and of using thugs to attack his opponents. He lives in exile in
South Africa, while an interim government has led the country for the last
two years.
   However he still enjoys wide support, and many Haitians believe that if
Preval wins, he will bring Aristide back.
   James Jeudi, a 21-year-old unemployed laborer, said Monday he'd still
like the ousted leader to return, but called voting for Preval the next
best alternative.
   "We loved Aristide, but Aristide is there in exile, and we are here. We
have to carry on," Jeudi said. "Preval knows the suffering of the poor, and
that is why we're going to vote for him."
   Bernard defended a decision not to put voting stations inside the
sprawling, seaside slum of Cite Soleil, a base for armed gangs loyal to
Aristide who are blamed for a wave of kidnappings in the capital. Residents
of Cite Soleil accused officials of trying to disenfranchise them, but
officials say they can vote at polling stations outside the slum.
   "It's a moral question. I couldn't ask an election worker to go into an
area that I myself wouldn't go," Bernard said.
   U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the 9,300-member U.N.
peacekeeping force "will do all it can to support the Haitian authorities
in ensuring that the vote is held in freedom and safety."
   Underscoring the difficulty of holding elections in a country with a
ruined infrastructure -- including roads -- mules transported some election
materials to areas where U.N. helicopters were unable to land. The vote has
been postponed four times since October because of security problems and
trouble distributing elections materials.
   The election has been billed as a move to restore democracy, but it is a
daunting task. With decades of brain drain, capital flight and crippling
judicial, security, health and corruption problems, the Western
hemisphere's poorest nation needs more than a quick electoral fix, experts
say.
   The 70-mile drive from Port-au-Prince to the northern town of Gonaives
takes four hours, and the roads are far from Haiti's worst.
   Deforestation is widespread, leaving topsoil vulnerable, and when
hurricanes hit, catastrophic floods often to follow. Land plots grow
smaller as the population increases, and poor farming methods exhaust an
already-tired soil.
   Haiti has long suffered from oppression and instability. The country was
ruled for nearly 30 years by dictators Francois "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his
son Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier, who fled to France in 1986 amid
allegations of human rights violations, mass killings and stealing millions
from the national treasury.
   Efforts to restore democracy since then have faltered. Soldiers aborted
Haiti's first attempt at free elections in a bloodbath in 1987. Aristide,
then a priest who preached rebellion to slum-dwelling Haitians, won
elections in 1990 but served only seven months before the military
overthrew him. Aristide was re-elected in 2000.